[removed]

[removed]

Catholicism is a form of Christianity. The Pope is the head of the Catholic church and is the one who can interpret the bible. There is a hierarchy or organizational structure to it - under the Pope you'd have Cardinals and under them you'd have Bishops and then Priests (there might be others, don't remember off the top of my head).

[deleted]

All Catholics are Christian, but not all Christians are Catholics. Catholics are a sub-type of Christians.

All Christians believe in the spirituality/holiness of Jesus Christ, as either the son of God or as an aspect of God. Catholics recognize the Pope as the living representative/authority on God and the Bible. Other forms of Christianity, like Orthodox Christianity or Protestantism, do not recognize the Pope in that way.

All Catholics are Christians, not all Christians are Catholic. The Catholic Church is lead by the Pope in Rome. Over the centuries, there have been Christian group that have broken ties with Rome for various reasons. At first there were just Christians, then the Schism broke Christians into the Orthodox in the East, and Catholics in the West. The founders of the first Protestant Churches were originally Catholic, but then they broke off into their own churches.

Catholics are a subset of Christians. Like chicken is a type of poultry.

Catholicism believes that Christ is one with god and that through the power of the priest that the eucharist is the true body of Christ.

May be a little off, recovering Catholic

Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ was the son of God sent to save us from sin, he died on the cross, then was resurrected and taken to heaven by God.

Catholicism is one of many sects of the christian religion. The differences between the different sects are varied. In the broadest of strokes the differences comes down to the way they interpret the bible and the way they practice their religion. To get into more specifics than that and you go deep into the theological weeds.

> Catholicism is a branch of Christianity. Used to be the only one until the Protestant Reform.

Er...no. The original split was between Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox church. Protestants then split from Catholics later on.

Everyone is saying Catholicism is a subset of Christianity but if I’m not mistaken all other branches of Christianity are a reaction to Catholicism. As far as I know all modern branches of Christianity are subsets of Protestantism which came about because Martin Luther was big time pissed at the Catholic church.

[removed]

Sadly you are misinformed. Christianity, prior to the Martin Luther stuff, was already split into several groups: Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and the Coptic Church are a few that come to mind.

It seems worth mentioning that a big part of the Protestant Reformation was the removal of the Deuterocanonical books. As a result, Catholics consider these books part of the Old Testament but Protestant Christians (the type of Christian I think most people mean when they are considering Catholics as distinct from Christians) do not. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterocanonical_books

Catholics don't pray to saints - they only pray to God. They do, however, believe in the power of intercessions and that's what they ask of the saints (e.g. St ..., pray for us; Mother Mary, pray for us).

One nitpick. The chain of command isn't so much that Cardinals rule over Bishops, but rather that Cardinal is a special title that some Bishops have. The title of Cardinal does not come with any territorial administration. A Cardinal is a bishop that can vote for the Pope.

Interesting I suppose I need to learn more but would I be incorrect saying Catholicism was the first Christ based religion?

To be even more picky, many Protestants also believe in the 'one holy catholic and apostolic church' and so authentically see themselves as 'catholic'. Catholic is a description basically meaning all-embracing. Roman Catholicism is a branch of Christianity against which historically many 'protested' during the Reformation. To add to the mix, there are plenty of people who would describe themselves as a Catholic (or protestant,though perhaps to a lesser extent - cf Northern Ireland), who are so culturally rather than by religious conviction.

Catholic is the OG Christian (or OC as it were). Every other branch of Christianity came from the Catholic tree trunk.

[deleted]

It's tricky. The Catholic Church claims to be the original Christian religion, with the idea that the Popes form a chain of leaders that go all the way back to Peter the apostle as the first leader of the Church.

But it all depends on your perspective. In reality (or at least my opinion), it's more of a family tree of sects branching off from each other that all go back to the original followers of Christ. Of course, ancient Christianity would have looked very different from all modern religions, so it's a bold claim for any to say it is the same as that original group.

Constantinople enters the chat….

One thing I don’t see mentioned is that up until 1054 AD, all Christians were Catholics. In 1054, the Eastern Orthodox broke off from the Catholic Church. Then the whole Protestant reformation started in 1517 with Martin Luther, a German Catholic Priest, was upset at the Pope and the Church for a variety of reasons, but the primary one being the Pope selling indulgences (free entry into heaven) to finance the building of St Peters Cathedral. The Pope didn’t like his rule being questioned (due to the Catholic belief in Papal infallibility, meaning if the Pope says or does it, it is right), so he excommunicated Luther (kicked him out of the Church). However Luther was extremely popular in Germany, so he still had a large group of followers that he continues to preach to. This group went on to become the Lutherans. Other religious leaders saw it was possible to nitpick certain Catholic beliefs, which led to many other Protestant churches forming like the Baptists, the Calvinists, the Anglicans, etc. This cherry picking of ideas has continued since then leading to hundreds of distinct Protestant sects. All of whom are still Christian, but vary in their specific ideology from other Christian sects, including whether or not other Christian sects will go to heaven or not.

Nitpick on the nitpick: while a cardinal does not rule over other bishops, there are metropolitan archbishops and suffragan bishops. A metropolitan is the head of an ecclesiastical province and doesn't rule over other bishops as such, but is more like a general overseer and symbolic head of the province.

Have you never seen a tree that splits into two trunks?

The Schism of 1054 that split eastern and western practices was still a formal spilt from Western Christianity (i.e. Roman Catholicism) to recognize an equally long standing set of practices and traditions. There were other political factors that assisted the formal split and those do not negate the long standing traditions of the eastern church. I get it but it was still an ELI5 explanation.

[removed]

Priests can be cardinals too

ELI5: You see that Christmas tree over there? It's not the same as this tree with leaves that shed its leaves in the fall. But they're both trees. Christianity is all trees, Catholicism is a specific kind of tree. We call that "species" for trees and "denominations" for Christianity.

From a Protestant perspective, Catholicism was far from being the first Christ-based religion. In fact the whole reformation fiasco that took place in the ~1400-1600s was a reactionary movement that sought to return to older, original representations of the faith as portrayed in the time of the New Testament’s writing. This movement was fueled by a critical thinking process that spurred a return to the original texts of the religions, and a realization that Catholicism had much in both its rituals and its canon that was nowhere spoken of in the original ethos of the faith.

[removed]

>but would I be incorrect saying Catholicism was the first Christ based religion?

Absolutely.

The first Christians faiths were the original cults that sprang up in the wake of Christ's death circa 30ish AD.

Those cults then spread across the Eastern Mediterranean and started forming their own religions, and were only broadly unified into a single church a few hundred years later by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which is broadly considered the origin of the original Christian "Church" as accepted by Roman Catholicism, the various Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church, and the Anglicans, and (as a result) by Protestantism further down the line.

The Catholic Church as it exists today was only really formed 700 years later, when the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches split from each other in the Great Schism. But even prior to the Schism there were tons of variant churches all following the Nicene Creed; the only reason the pre-schism Catholic Church was so large was because of it's relationship with the Roman Empire.

Honestly; if you're looking for the faiths closest to OG Christianity, that would be either the Coptic, Oriental Orthodox, or Assyrian Churches.

Catholics are the original Christians… All other groups broke off from it. ✝️

Catholics are the largest group of Christians with over 1 Billion people and most of the European countries. 🧬

Indeed. No nitpick cannot be picked apart itself.

That's right, I forgot about Cardinal Deacons.

Although the Eastern Orthodox church is officially the Orthodox Catholic Church. So I guess they might say the Roman Catholic Church broke away from them.

They are basically the same.

Thanks for the insight, I guess being raised catholic I had a skewed view on the history

Please read this entire message

Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):

Discussion of religious or political beliefs are not allowed on ELI5. These usually end up being discussions rather than requests for simplifying complex concepts. They also tend to have a large subjective bent.

If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the detailed rules first. If you believe this submission was removed erroneously, please use this form and we will review your submission.